WORK IN SERBIA: Every third person does INSECURE jobs

The research conducted by the Platform for Theory and Social Practice of Common Goods has shown that almost every third worker in Serbia is engaged in jobs that are short-term, insecure and that do not guarantee dignified working conditions in terms of access to labour, social and economic rights.

The authors of the publication „Second-class workers: non-standard work in Serbia“ say that the share of permanent workers among employees has dropped from 88.5 percent in 2010 and 81.4 percent in 2014 to about 77 percent, as it has been for the past three years.

The share of fixed-term workers in total employment has tripled in the past 10 years, from 5.9 percent in 2010 to about 14.1 percent in 2019. While in 2010, 11.4 percent of workers were employed in insecure forms of work – for a fixed term, seasonally or temporarily, their share rose to 22.5 percent by 2019.

The most common forms of insecure work include the least non-standard work, i.e. fixed-term contract, as well as the most non-standard work, i.e. „undeclared work“.

As far as informal work is concerned, it is still very present in Serbia, so almost a fifth of all the employees work undeclared. Another of the numerically most important categories are independent workers, i.e. self-employed persons without employees, about half a million of them, the platform’s research shows.

The responsibility for this situation is largely borne by the state, which has significantly contributed to the erosion of workers’ rights and labour security by amending and adopting new regulations in recent decades.

The laws that regulate this area are largely to the advantage of employers, not employees, and they thus legalize insecure forms of work, it is stated in the press release.

Izvor: 021, FoNet

Foto: Pixabay